Easy Vegan Pumpkin Coffee Cake (Gluten Free)
This super delicious, moist, and tender pumpkin coffee cake is full of all of autumn’s classic flavors, and just so easy to make! Perfect with a cup of coffee for a cozy fall breakfast, and undetectably vegan, eggless, dairy free, and refined sugar free!
Why you need to try this secretly vegan pumpkin coffee cake
If you’re a lover of all bakery treats and fixings that go along side a hot cup of coffee, then you’re going to be OBSESSED with this perfect pumpkin coffee cake. It’s the definition of fall in a bite: warm cinnamon and fall spices, fresh pumpkin puree, and notes of caramel flavor fill this easy twist on the classic coffee cake (and if you love coffee cake in general, you have to try this amazing better than Starbucks vegan coffee cake!).
And guess what? This pumpkin coffee cake recipe is naturally vegan, eggless, and dairy free! No need for any additional egg substitutes: the pumpkin puree acts as both the “egg” and the moisture carrier for this simple yet unbelievably delicious vegan pumpkin recipe.
And trust me, absolutely NO ONE will be able to detect that this is indeed a vegan pumpkin coffee cake. We’re just minimizing the ingredients yet maximizing the flavor with a super moist, tender, and fluffy texture.
Along with these vegan pumpkin pancakes and vegan pumpkin waffles, this pumpkin coffee cake recipe makes for a wonderful fall vegan breakfast!
Ingredients
We’ll need to make both the actual cake batter and the streusel topping. But don’t worry- both the streusel and batter are made from very similar ingredients.
For this vegan coffee cake, you’ll need:
- Flour: you can use gluten free 1:1 baking flour or all purpose flour here.
- Granulated sugar & brown sugar: you can also swap in coconut sugar if you’d like this coffee cake to be refined sugar free. A note about sugar, though: if you are truly vegan, please make sure you use vegan-certified organic granulated sugar, as non-organic brands tend to use bone char.
- Vegan butter: I recommend using Miyoko’s vegan butter; for nut-free, Flora Plant Butter or Earth Balance.
- Pumpkin spice blend: You can also use a a DIY pumpkin pie spice blend.
- Pumpkin puree: the pumpkin puree here plays a double role as also substituting in for eggs in traditional baking! No need for any additional binder here! If you’d like to, though, you can substitute in half of the pumpkin with vegan sour cream or vegan dairy free greek yogurt.
- Vegan buttermilk: this is a simple mixture of dairy free milk and vinegar (apple cider vinegar in recommended) that adds fluffiness to the pumpkin coffee cake.
- Leavening agents: this is your baking soda and baking powder.
The streusel topping will consist of just flour, sugar, pumpkin spice blend and vegan butter.
How to make pumpkin coffee cake (overview)
For the full written instructions and ingredient measurements, see the bottom of this post in the recipe card. You can also hit the “jump to recipe” button at the top of this post! Here, we’ll go over a brief overview of the steps, along with providing visuals for a better understanding of the recipe.
You’re just going to love how simple and quick this pumpkin coffee cake is to make. The perfect treat to make right before a weekend brunch or as an easy and cozy fall morning breakfast.
You’ll first want to prepare the pan and get the oven preheated. Then we’ll start by making the streusel first, followed by the coffee cake batter. The reason being is that once the wet ingredients interact with the baking soda and baking powder, the chemical reaction starts.
This means we need to get the batter into the oven as soon as possible! Making the streusel topping first will make sure we minimize the time the batter spends outside of the oven.
Here’s how to make this easy pumpkin coffee cake recipe:
- First make the streusel topping.This is just combining the flour, coconut sugar, and pumpkin spice blend. Then whisk in the melted vegan butter, and set aside. We’ll use this one the batter is ready.
- Next, we’ll make the vegan pumpkin batter. First, whisk together the dry ingredients. Then whisk together the wet ingredients (vegan melted butter, sugars, pumpkin puree, and vanilla extract) in a separate bowl. Add in the dry ingredients, and use a rubber spatula to fold together until there are no more dry clumps. Be careful not to over mix the batter!
- Layer the coffee cake:Add half of the batter to the prepared pan, then stop with the sugar filling. Then add the remaining batter on top, followed by the remaining streusel topping.
- Bake the vegan pumpkin coffee cake. Once baked, you can make the easy two ingredient vegan glaze to go on top! Slice and serve!
Gluten free option:
To easily make this coffee cake gluten free, simply swap in gluten free 1:1 baking flour. I’ve made this recipe with both King Arthur’s Measure for Measure flour and Bob’s Red Mill in the blue bag. I recommend using King Arthur’s, but Bob’s Red Mill is the second best option!
Pumpkin Coffee Cake FAQs
Can I make my own pumpkin spice blend?
If you don’t have pumpkin spice blend, you can absolutely make your own blend. I would recommend making your own versus just using all cinnamon. If you use all cinnamon, it will taste more like a classic coffee cake over a fall-inspired pumpkin crumb cake. You definitely need the cloves, nutmeg, and ginger!
Can I use coconut oil in place of vegan butter?
You can use coconut oil instead of vegan butter. However, make sure to use triple refined coconut oil if you want to avoid a coconut taste in your coffee cake.
What can I top this pumpkin coffee cake with?
Simply whisk together powdered sugar and a few drops of dairy free milk for an easy glaze that takes this pumpkin coffee cake to a whole new level!
Why did my coffee cake come out gluey?
This happens when you’ve over-scooped the flour. I recommend using weighted measurements here, but if you don’t have a kitchen scale, definitely check out how to properly measure flour. When measuring flour, always spoon and level, rather than scoop!
You are just going to absolutely love this easy vegan pumpkin coffee cake! It’s the perfect vegan fall breakfast recipe that’s full of autumn’s best flavors!
Be sure to leave a rating and review if you’ve tried this recipe. And check out these other vegan pumpkin recipes for more inspiration!
Want to save this recipe for later? Add it to your favorite recipe board on Pinterest!
If you make this recipe, please be sure to leave a comment and a rating ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ below. This helps others to find the recipes! As always, I absolutely love to see your beautiful creations on Instagram and Pinterest, so be sure to tag me there as well!
Print
Easy Vegan Pumpkin Coffee Cake (Gluten Free)
- Prep Time: 10
- Cook Time: 50
- Total Time: 1 hour
- Yield: 16 1x
- Category: Breakfast
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
- Diet: Vegan
Description
This super delicious, moist, and tender pumpkin coffee cake is full of all of autumn’s classic flavors, and just so easy to make! Perfect with a cup of coffee for a cozy fall breakfast, and undetectably vegan, eggless, dairy free, and refined sugar free!
Ingredients
Pumpkin Coffee Cake:
- 3 cups (375 g) all purpose flour*
- 1 tbsp arrowroot starch
- 1 tbsp pumpkin pie spice blend
- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 1/4 cup (250 g) granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup (113 g) vegan butter, melted and cooled
- 3/4 cup (170 g) pumpkin puree
- 2/3 cup (180 g) unsweetened dairy free milk with 1 tsp apple cider vinegar, room temperature
- 1 tbsp vanilla extract or vanilla paste
Pumpkin Spice Filling:
- 3/4 cup (150 g) granulated sugar or brown sugar
- 1/4 cup (37 g) all purpose flour*
- 2 tbsp pumpkin pie spice blend
Pumpkin Spice Crumble:
- 3/4 cup (150 g) granulated sugar or brown sugar
- 1 cup (125 g) all purpose flour*
- 2 tbsp pumpkin pie spice blend
- 1/2 cup (113 g) vegan butter, melted
Optional Topping:
- 1 cup (120 g) powdered sugar
- 1 tbsp dairy free milk
Instructions
- Prep: Preheat the oven to 350F and lightly grease and line an 8×8 baking pan with parchment paper and olive oil.
- Pumpkin spice sugar filling: In a medium bowl, prepare the pumpkin spice sugar filling. Whisk together the sugar, flour, and cinnamon. Set aside.
- Pumpkin spice crumble topping: In another medium bowl, prepare the pumpkin spice crumble. Whisk together the sugar, flour, and pumpkin spice. Use a fork to mix in the melted vegan butter into the mixture until it resembles a crumble. Set aside.
- Make the vegan pumpkin coffee cake batter: Prepare the main coffee cake layer. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, arrowroot powder, pumpkin spice, and baking powder and baking soda. Set aside. In a large bowl, whisk together the melted vegan butter, sugar, pumpkin puree, dairy free milk mixture, and vanilla. Then add in the flour mixture, and stir until there are no more dry streaks of flour.
- Assemble the coffee cake: Pour half of the batter into your baking pan, and spread the batter to touch the edges of the pan. Sprinkle in the cinnamon sugar filling on top evenly. Add the remaining half of the batter on top of the pumpkin spice sugar filling. Top with the pumpkin spice crumble.
- Bake: Place the pan into the oven to bake for 45-55 minutes, or until the toothpick comes out clean. Remove from the oven, and allow the coffee cake to cool in the pan for 10 minutes.
- Serve: When ready to serve, it’s best served slightly warm. Slice into 9 squares and prepare the optional glaze. Whisk together the powdered sugar and dairy free milk, and drizzle on top of each slice. Enjoy! Store any leftovers covered in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 4 days, in the fridge for up to 6 days, or in the freezer for up to a month.
Notes
*Gluten Free: You can swap in gluten-free 1:1 baking flour (such as King Arthur’s measure for measure) or oat flour. For gluten free flour blends, please use the cup measurements then convert to gram measurements (so if 1 cup of Bob’s Red Mill 1:1 GF baking flour weighs 148 g per cup, you’ll multiply 148 by 3 cups of flour to yield 444 g for this recipe). If you’re using King Arthur measure-for-measure, however, 1 cup of KA = 1 cup AP flour in weight as well, so you can use 375 g of King Arthur GF measure-for-measure flour. For oat flour, please use the gram measurements rather than the cup measurements (so you would need 3 3/4 cups of oat flour for 375 g).
Pumpkin spice blend: if you don’t have a blend of pumpkin spice, you can easily making one. Here is a great DIY pumpkin spice blend that I use often.
Keywords: pumpkin coffee cake, vegan pumpkin coffee cake
Great recipe. I will be making this again and again until the spring, probably! I used 2% milk, regular butter, and a mix of all-purpose white flour and wheat flour for the cake portion. I also added 1/2 tsp salt since the butter I used was unsalted. I baked it for 40 minutes and let it sit for 30. It is perfect! I did not making the optional topping, as I found it sweet and flavorful enough!
★★★★★
This is so incredibly helpful and useful, thank you so much, Kate!! Great tips, and so glad to hear you were able to make those ingredient swaps without an issue! Enjoy and thank you again!
I totally love this recipe! I decided to make this into muffins, and they turned out really well. I used regular butter instead of vegan, and baked them at the prescribed temperature for about 22 minutes. The only time I questioned myself was when I noticed how thick the batter was. Lol. I trusted the process, and am so happy I did. Thank you so much for the wonderful recipe!
★★★★★
This is so wonderful to hear!! Thank you so much for such a wonderful review! Yes, vegan batters tend to be on the thicker side, but they bake beautifully! I’ve tried making batters to be a bit more fluid and have found they bake too dense unfortunately! Baking is such a fascinating process 🙂
hi Britt! can I make this recipe without arrow root? or any substitute if not?
thanks so much!
Hi Francis! Yes, you can substitute arrowroot with cornstarch 🙂 Enjoy!
Would a regular cake pan work with this?
Hi Courtney! It technically would, but you’d have to flip the coffee cake upside down to remove it, and risk ruining the crumble.
Surely it’s a lovely cake but I have no idea why mine haven’t risen enough. It’s just half the size of the pictures and I am quite saddened by this fact 😭
★★★★
Hi there! This sounds like it was either a baking powder issue or you used a larger springform pan! Double check that your baking powder isn’t expired (and that you added enough!) 🙂 That was most likely the issue!
Help! I don’t get the gluten free cup and grams notes. On bobs red mill site it says it’s 148 g per cup for Bob’s 1:1. So for 3 cups it would be 444. Am I using the wrong info or not understanding? Thank you! We love all your recipes just want to make sure I measure correctly.
I’m so sorry for the confusion!! Yes, use 444 grams- I’m looking at my notes and wondering I think their flour blend might have changed in weight. Before, on their site, I had seen 140 grams. If you look at the back of your bag and see what a serving size of 1/4 cup equals in grams (should either by 35 g or 37 g), and multiply that by 4, then that will be 1 cup for the weight of your flour. Then multiply that by 3, and you’ll get the grams you should use here! (So 444 g would be correct if the measurement says 37 g!). I hope that helps!! If it’s too confusing, you can definitely use King Arthur measure for measure- that’s recently been my go to because it equals 1 cup AP flour in weight!
YUM!
★★★★★
Omg!! This is the best pumpkin dessert EVER!! It was very easy to make and for sure will be making again!! Thank you thank you thank you for sharing all these wonderful delights!!!
★★★★★
I’m so happy to hear this!! Thank you so much for giving it a go!! Enjoy!!
No coffee in a coffee cake? Is this a special baking science I’m not familiar with?!
Hahah no, no special baking science! Coffee cake actually doesn’t contain coffee in it! I know, it’s a misnomer 🙂
Hello! Can’t wait to make this but have a question about the pan? In the pics looks like a round spring form pan, but in the instructions it says an 8×8 pan which is square? Can you clarify which you use or if both etc? And what size your spring form pan was? Also did you find that both Bobs 1:1 and KA flours produced a good cake or did you prefer one over the other?
Thank you so much!
Hi Kelly! Oh yes, I’m so sorry, you might be seeing the old photos in which I baked the coffee cake in a round 8″ springform pan- either one will work! Whichever shape you’d like your coffee cake to be in 🙂 For the flour, I personally liked King Arthur measure for measure better- it produced a much fluffier cake in my opinion!
Enjoy!
Thank you Britt… it came out wonderfully in my 9″ spring form pan!!! Fabulous recipe! I tweaked the filling a bit adding in chopped pecans and more cinnamon. Thank you!!!
★★★★★
I’m so happy to hear that!! Enjoy 🙂 Sounds great!! Thanks for the review!
I really liked this recipe, especially because it was gluten free and vegan! Pretty easy to put together and didn’t take much time to prepare. Only thing i would change in my own kitchen, is putting 1 tablespoon less of pumpkin pie spice in the filling and in the crumble, only because it’s a little too spicy to me. But other than that, the recipe is great!
★★★★
Totally understandable 🙂 A little less spice could definitely work! Thanks so much for the review, and so glad you enjoyed!!